Anze Kopitar’s final season doesn’t start well as Kings lose to Avalanche

For Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, Tuesday’s NHL season-opener was the beginning of the end while for Ken Holland, the team’s first-year general manager, it was the end of the beginning.

For both it was also a night to forget, with the Colorado Avalanche skating through, over and around the Kings in a dominant 4-1 victory built on second-period goals from Martin Necas, Sam Malinski, Artturi Lehkonen and a second Necas score midway through the third.

Kevin Fiala got the Kings only score on the team’s third power play of the final period, though the goal, coming with less than five minutes to play, was little more than a murmur of protest. Kopitar picked up his 839^th career assist on the play, padding his franchise record and extending his point streak on opening day to eight games.

“That’s a pretty good team,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said afterward. “They did a good job. They out-checked us, they caught us, they disrupted plays, they didn’t let us forecheck.

“That was not a good game for us. I don’t want to take away from how well Colorado played. [But] we need to play better than we did.”

Kopitar, the Kings’ all-time leader in several other categories including games, announced last month that this season, his 20^th in the NHL, would be his last. And while those numbers will eventually take him to the Hall of Fame, first there will be a farewell tour around the league, one that got off to an uneven start with the sellout crowd at Crypto.com Arena saluting him with a standing ovation pregame. Kopitar wasn’t much of a factor after that, however, taking just one shot in 18 minutes.

Meanwhile for Holland, hired last May to get the Kings beyond the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, the game marked the end of his summer restructuring with his new team. And the first impression of what he built wasn’t a good one, with the Kings losing their opener for the third time in four seasons.

Both teams played cautiously in a first period that ended with the Kings skating shorthanded after Colorado’s Josh Manson took down Warren Foegele with an elbow, a hit Jeff Malott acknowledged by chasing Manson down the ice and dropping the gloves. Both players drew five-minute fighting penalties but Malott was also given two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Anze Kopitar is introduced before Tuesday’s season opener for the Kings.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

“I like the response to the hit on Foegele,” Hiller said. “We thought it was a high hit so Malott went in. We’ve got no problems with that. I thought that was really important moment for him and for our team; that we’re not going to take that.”

The Kings killed the penalty — the first of 12 on the night for both teams — but seconds after the two sides were back at full strength Necas gave the Avalanche the lead for good with a wrister from the right circle.

Malinski, a defenseman, doubled the advantage less than seven minutes later, blasting a shot from just inside the blue line through traffic and by goalie Darcy Kuemper. Lehkonen gave Colorado its third goal of the second period on a rebound with 5:18 left.

“Second period wasn’t good enough,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We were on our heels, we were turning the puck over too much. They were getting a lot of speed up turnovers, 3 on 2s and stuff. And that hurt us.

“Definitely not even close to good enough.”

Necas then made it 4-0 on a power-play goal halfway through the final period. Fiala matched that with the Kings’ first goal of the year less than five minutes later.

The Kings rarely challenged Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood in the first two periods, playing tentatively and creating little offense, putting just nine shots on goal through the first 36 minutes. Helped by four Colorado penalties the Kings came alive in a chippy third period, putting 14 shots on goal.

“Good response in the third,” Doughty said. “But too little, too late.”